"It was no ordinary fire, my lord," Reggie reiterated gravely. He paced the hallway outside Blake's hospital room, keeping his voice low. Only 12 hours had passed since nearly losing Blake to the raging blaze consuming Shelley Tech building.
"The doors lock chanisms showed no signs of tampering and I detected traces of a strong wax within the executive wing, a spider string, my lord," Reggie's ominous words fed the cold dread pooling in Rose's stomach. "This points towards deliberate arson,"
Rose gripped her cell phone tighter, mind racing through the implications. "And no digital security alarms triggered beforehand? No warning signs of an intruder or system breach?"
Sothing bigger lurked behind the orchestrated inferno almost claiming her company and lover in one vicious swoop. Blake had nearly died last night without learning crucial truths - about their fiercest enemies' identity or Reggie's and her own closely guarded supernatural secret. Two n staked everything to protect her and now faced gravest danger if new adversary sches continued unchecked.
Reggie hesitated before responding delicately. "All footage and activity logs registered normally right until the initial explosions on the 24th floor. But I cannot shake the certainty that this disaster resulted from intelligently preditated sabotage, my lord. Advanced expertise targeted Shelley Tech's structural vulnerabilities with lethal precision."
Rose squeezed her eyes shut as nausea threatened to overwhelm. So ruthless unseen foe had slipped inside her fortress walls, harming people she held most precious. Likely the sa cold mastermind leaking slander to dia for months now, trying to destroy her empire piece by piece. But this escalation put everyone at risk - and they may strike again anyti.
"We must protect Blake 24/7 moving forward," Rose directed Reggie sharply. "Install security updates throughout Shelley Tech also. Nobody gets inside without clearance confirmation from either of us." Rose sensed Reggie's silent tension through the phone - he still withheld part of the troubling narrative. Bracing herself, she asked neutrally. "What else aren't you telling yet?"
Reggie cleared his throat delicately. "There are...extenuating circumstances regarding last night still requiring explanation too. But perhaps waiting until you return stateside..."
"Absolutely not," Rose interjected forcefully. "Blake is awake and recovering, I confird via nurses already. Tell everything, Reggie. Now." Steel laced each clipped syllable. She built a billion dollar empire by facing problems head on no matter how daunting. Life-altering disasters proved no different.
Reggie exhaled slowly into Rose's brief silence. "Last night's extraction necessitated...utilizing my full skillset, witnessed undeniably by Blake in the process. I suspect confronting those realities so starkly shortly after nearly perishing may have overwheld him sowhat." He hesitated briefly before plunging onwards.
"Ergency personnel also discovered a woman with a tag as Shelley Tech employee, Emily clark unconscious in the alley behind the building. She claid to have only rembered walking to work the morning before. Apparently, report by the dics suggest she suffered minor psychogenic amnesia regarding what had happened to her but bore no physical trauma aside from two unusual puncture wounds."
Reggie coughed lightly. "These wounds I'm afraid are rather like those inflicted when a vampire compels information under mind control and then erases mories after..."
"Did you say Emily?" Cold horror flooded Rose's senses as the whole puzzle began to fit into place. Soone, no, a vampire had disguised their self and enter into her own building to harm Blake.
Imagining this female vampire predator disguised as one of her own roaming free sowhere still. What cruel machinations compelled such intimate infiltration? Did she act alone or in league with the arsonist? How many more sinister players might erge plotting Shelley's destruction behind friendly facades?
Most unsettling was the stark reality now confronting Reggie and Rose about Blake. In his shock and trauma induced fog, how much had Blake actually processed about a trusted aide harnessing terrifying powers bordering the supernatural?
More worriso, did she nurture Blake's implicit trust by finally illuminating Reggie's whole truth too? Or might burdening a weakened man with more fantastical secrets this soon endanger his recovery further?
Rose sensed Reggie awaiting her decision silently - reveal all now or invoke plausible deniability regarding anything defying reason during last night's harrowing chaos. After all, the were alternatives out of this problem. But it involved Blake and oh she hated that it did.
She couldn't be as ...efficient as she normally would if it were soone else.
How Blake interpreted events once discharged likely shaped their futures irrevocably. But tempting as it felt shielding soone she loves from her harsh realities, deceit rarely proved constructive long term.
"We tell him everything," Rose declared finally into the tense echoing silence.
"Blake deserves full transparency after nearly dying amidst our battles. I must know he understands exactly what deadly forces we all contend against moving forward."
"Of course Ms Shelley. You show most prudent wisdom as ever." Reggie's formal assurance eased her churning doubts sowhat. They would face whatever outco presented itself next, together.
Glancing back through Blake's doorway where he slept peacefully still, Reggie's normally kind eyes glinted with unfamiliar somberness instead. Reggie understood his grave expression instantly - they had averted disaster by narrowest margins already. And the enemy likely watched their every vulnerable move henceforth waiting to strike deadlier next ti.
The glittering Shelley Tech empire Rose built from nothing now balanced on a knife's edge. The stakes were now higher than ever. Would Blake stand loyally with Rose still once comprehending the full truth?
Or might fresh terrifying revelations shatter fragile bonds between them forever?
******
*Author's Note*
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*Author's Note*
I want to call out to you all to join the discord and help support the book. My first ti writing and all and it's been a fantastic journey.
Please guys support so this book can grow.
Gifts, golden tickets and power stones would be very much appreciated!!
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